Category Archives: reviews

Every week, your resident entertainment buffs (that is to say…Kendra James and I) will recap the plot of Scandal. Then, the following Thursday morning, we will invite some Racialicious friends in for an in-depth discussion of the previous episode’s events, their implications, and thoughts of what’s to come.

MAJOR Plot Spoilers for Scandal 2.10, “One for the Dog,” after the jump. You’ve been warned…

During its original run, some people called The Shadow Line “the British Wire,” which isn’t quite fair. In fact, it’s more accurate to call Chiwetel Ejiofor’s seven-part miniseries, currently airing on DirecTV’s Audience Network, an appropriately somber example of British gangster fiction done right. Some spoilers are under the cut

Cartoonist Keith Knight had a busy time at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con: he was part of The Black Panel, hosted his own panel, Nappy Hour, and promoted his own work, Too Small To Fail, the latest collection of work from (th)ink, his one-shot cartoon published in alternative newspapers around the country.

Too Small breezes through a host of topics, sometimes with sensibility, as in the case of a series of informational posts about Black History Month, and other times slinging barbs at targets both political:

and social:

As a result, the compilation can go from funny to affecting to edifying within just a few pages, making it a good introduction to Knight’s work for those who can’t read it in their own local papers. Meanwhile, at Comic-Con, Knight has been using a similar rapid-fire strategy for “Nappy Hour,” which he brought back this year with a panel that included “Black Panel” host Michael Davis,Bad Azz Mofo head honcho David Walker, and writer/performer Pam Noles.

I caught up to Knight at the convention to talk about the panel, his memories of McDuffie, and his impressions on fandom and race. The clip and a full transcript are under the cut.

In a better world for Idris Elba, we’d be writing about the return of Luther, the cops-and-robbers drama he produced for the BBC, in more glowing terms: the rising film star (thanks to Thor) coming back as a producer and lead for his relatively-little project that could. But given that the show’s ratings actually decreased during its’ first season despite Elba netting an NAACP Image Award and a Golden Globe nomination for his work in the title role, let’s just be glad it’s back at all.

Especially since the show ended that first season on a suitably squirmy cliffhanger: when we last left the despondent Detective Inspector, he was in the absolute wrong place at the wrong time – standing near his friend’s bloody corpse with his co-workers, convinced he was involved in another murder, closing in. His last question before we hit the credits – “Now what?” – would surely be the first one answered this year, right? Especially since showrunner Neil Cross only had four hours to wrap the case this year?

The show returned to British airwaves Tuesday, though no word yet on if and when it will air on BBC America. So far, though, the answers are few, while the problems for Luther are new. Be aware, spoilers are under the cut.

Since the days of Prohibition, Juarez has been a place for First World visitors to come and indulge in any number of illicit pleasures (alcohol, guns, drugs, sex). It is also the site where global capital has been making a killing to the tune of billions of dollars in annual profit…Because pollution laws are conveniently lax, the factories can emit fumes and dump waste without much concern or coversight. For all these reason, the U.S.-Mexico border has been made into something of an international sacrifice zone.

I’m not sure how old I was when I first heard about the women who were being sexually violated, horribly mutilated, and discarded like garbage in the desert surrounding Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The femicide that has claimed the lives of hundreds of women–with thousands more unaccounted for–began in 1993, although no one can really know for sure. Looking at several of the time frames listed in Making a Killing: Femicide, Free Trade, and La Fronteraand doing the math, I was stunned to realize that I’ve been hearing about this femicide for at least fifteen years now. Over the years, I’ve been even more stunned to learn how many people still don’t know that the murders are even taking place.

Coming on the heels of a seemingly endless surge of anti-Muslim bigotry in the U.S., CNN picked the most opportune moment to air its special on Muslims, titled Unwelcome: The Muslims Next Door with reporter Soledad O’Brien.

Toward the end of Down & Delirious In Mexico City: The Aztec Metropolis In The Twenty-First Century, author Daniel Hernandez talks about encountering a group of seven muses. It’s a credit to his craft and this book that he’s able to weave the entire septet together skillfully, not just with each other, but with the whole other array of characters that inhabit the worlds he encounters as part of his own journey.

Perhaps the most celebrated Fall collections to debut at this year’s Fashion Week were those that creatively incorporated technology. Several designers showcased computer-generated prints, retooling traditional craft textiles into computerized patterns comprising ultra modern garments. But even as fashion critics overwhelmingly celebrated this preponderance of technological innovation, most seemed similarly enamored of Ralph Lauren’s far less pioneering embrace of one of fashion’s oldest tropes: Shanghai Chic. Critics eagerly dedicated valuable column inches to the collection, which featured all the mainstays of Asian-inspired fashion: jade jewelry, golden dragons, cheongsams. While some candidly wondered whether the designer’s invocation of China was a statement about the nation’s growing economic competitiveness, others were simply happy to break out as many tired euphemisms for “Eastern” as possible. (Not only did the “Orient Express” make several stops but East, inevitably, met West.)

The familiar scenario aptly reinforces a key observation made by culture critic Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu in her newly published book, The Beautiful Generation: “Even when freed to dream and invent,” she writes, “[designers] seem only to return to long-held ideas about an exotic and erotic orient.”

Race, Culture, and Identity in a Colorstruck World

About This Blog

Racialicious is a blog about the intersection of race and pop culture. Check out our daily updates on the latest celebrity gaffes, our no-holds-barred critique of questionable media representations, and of course, the inevitable Keanu Reeves John Cho newsflashes.

Latoya Peterson (DC) is the Owner and Editor (not the Founder!) of Racialicious, Arturo García (San Diego) is the Managing Editor, Andrea Plaid (NYC) is the Associate Editor. You can email us at team@racialicious.com.